Choice & Consequence
by Sparky Pants
Summary: Choose. One to live, or one to die." A single choice Jeff Tracy had to face and infinite consequences he has to live with. How far will he go to get his son's back and claim revenge on the man who took them?
1. One

A/N: First thunderbirds story. The movie made me remember the love I had for the program as a kid. Please review n let me know what u think, if I'm following canon or whatever… no that I actually no what canon is or anything. Um… yeah, anyway, the Tracy boys aren't as old as they were in the TV show, but not as young as they were in the film. Somewhere in between. Dunno why, I just liked it better that way, and hopefully you will too :D.

Standard disclaimer applies, I don't own them, yadda yadda yadda. Enjoy!

Choice & Consequence

-__

"Some choices we live not only once but a thousand times over, remembering them for the rest of our lives." – Richard Bach__

One

_"NO!" Jeff Tracy screamed, lunging forwards, desperately trying to free himself from the hold of the large man behind him. "NO!" He screamed again, frantically trying to help the sons he could not reach as they called for him. His third cry was silenced as he watched the scene before him unfold further. He gaped open mouthed. There was a pause, what seemed an eternal silence and life seemed to slow to a stop. Then Jeff felt the wind rush out of him and his legs buckle as the person before him fell. "No."_

--

Lady Penelope Creighton-Ward stared at the man she had once considered to be the strongest and most steadfast of those she knew, and sighed. For whatever foolish reason she'd always believed him to be indestructible, staring at his now broken form she realised how wrong she'd been. "Jeff." She said softly, walking towards him. "Jeff."

"Hmm?" He looked up at her, as though awaking from a dream, tearing his eyes away from his son's portraits on the wall.

"Jeff… you can't stay here. You need to get away, just for a bit."

Jeff looked mildly horrified, his mind too clouded to fully comprehend and cope with what was going on and all the emotions that came with it. "No I can't, I mustn't. I can't leave them Penny. They're just children."

Penny could feel her heart breaking all over again for the, she didn't know how many times, in so many days. "Jeff, darling," She pleaded. "They're gone. You need to let go."

"Penny, they're my kids. They're my whole world. I can't." Jeff told her, his voice watery, eyes clouded, as his gaze returned to his son's smiling faces.

"Jeff, you can't do it again. You can't do what you did when Lucy died. You won't survive, the rest of us won't survive."

"That's okay though." He told her. "Because neither did they."

Penelope closed her eyes and bit her lip, her British upbringing failing once more to keep her emotions in check since… since the boys left.

_"Penny… help."_

She shook her head and wiped the tears from her eyes, clearing the all too vivid memory from her mind. She had been there when Virgil and Alan had been taken. Had watched as the youngest had been beaten senseless, and the elder had sobbed desperately, unable to help.

_"You bitch! Help him! Forget me, just help him! He's just a kid! Penny, PLEASE!"_

Virgil's angry words still resounded in her mind, and the guilt she felt at not helping them began to eat away at her once more. Her eyes returned to Jeff as she tried to comprehend what he must be going through. Unable to do so she hung her head and sighed. "I'll be back tomorrow Jeff." She told him softly, "Try and get some sleep."

The older man nodded and mumbled an affirmative response, but his eyes never left his son's portraits. Penelope sighed sadly before turning and leaving his office.

--

_"Come on Jeff. Choose. One to live, or one to die?"_

_"I… I can't."_

_"You can. Because if you can't they all die."_

_Jeff hesitated and stared at the man forcing him to debate over his son's lives. "Please." He begged, his voice near breaking. "Please, take me instead, leave them. They're just children. **Please**."_

_"I don't want you instead Jeff. The only job you have here is deciding what you want. And, of course, saying goodbye."_

_"Dad! **Dad**!" Scott's shouts through the glass that contained him drew his father's attention. "Let the other's live. Choose me Dad. Help them and make sure they're okay. Please. Just get them out of here!"_

_"What the hell Scott?!"_

_"Dad don't listen to him!"_

_"NO!"_

_His three middle son's shouts of protest at their eldest brother's request began immediately, as they pounded against their own glass prisons._

_"Dad don't do it." John shouted down to his father._

_"He has to do something Jonathon." The Hood pointed out from where he watched over the unfolding events, a suspended platform behind the glass capsules that held the Thunderbird pilots, high above their father. He walked towards Alan's. "Wouldn't you agree Alan?"_

_Alan closed his eyes for a moment as he tried to build up enough strength to turn around. He pushed himself away from the glass he had been leaning against, leaving patches steamed up where is warm skin had been resting against it, and slowly turned to face his captor. "Fuck you." He breathed heavily, staring the Hood in the face. "Fuck. You." He repeated, closing his eyes and leaning back against the glass, too tired and beaten to do anything else._

_"Now Alan," The Hood began, staring at the family's youngest. "That wasn't very polite was it?"_

_"Leave him alone." Gordon seethed, banging angrily on the glass that contained him. "Stay the hell away from him!" The Hood smiled at him and let out a small chuckle, pleased that his plan had worked so perfectly. Using each of the older Tracy's protectiveness over their youngest he had managed to get them all exactly where he wanted them. True, it had meant that young Alan was a little worse for wear, but that didn't matter now. Now that he would finally get what he'd been aching for, for years._

_"I must say Jeff." The Hood began, walking back over to get a better view of their father. "You didn't do a very good job did you? No manners at all these boys, sign of a poor upbringing that is. What sort of a father are you?" He paused, watching as Jeff took in his words, and frowning irritably as the four eldest once again began their protests. "What sort of a parent puts their children in such grave danger all the time?" He paused again. "A bad one. And when your son's die? It will be your fault."_

--

Jeff woke with a start, tears streaming down his face. "No." He choked, his voice scratchy from sleep and tears. He looked up from his desk. His office was empty, dark and silent. "Just a dream." He said to himself, suddenly filled with a new hope. "It was just a dream." He got up and ran to his nearest son's bedroom. "John!" He said loudly flinging open the door. "John." He said more quietly, seeing the bed empty. Thunderbird Five. He thought to himself. John was on Thunderbird Five, which meant. "Scott!" He said more urgently, running into his eldest son's room. "Scott?!" He said again. His heart broke as he saw yet another empty bed. They weren't coming back. His children were gone and they were never coming back. He sat down heavily on Scott's bed, holding his head in his hands. "How could I have let this happen?" He asked himself. "I'm sorry. I'm so, so sorry."


	2. Two

A/N: Thank u for all the reviews so far :D I dunno why but seems to have messed up the first chapter (or at least it had last time I checked) but hopefully I can get it to go back to normal. So if it's the first time you're reading that it's not supposed to be like that. Anyhoo, second chapter up, please review and let me know what u think. I warn u now I have an issue with commas. I dunno why but I put them in EVERYWHERE. I always re read a good few times to make sure I get rid of the ones that aren't needed but I may have missed a few, so for that I'm sorry. Please rnr n let me know what u think :D thankies!

Choice & Consequence

-

"Men must suffer the consequences of their own mistakes and learn by their own failures and their own successes." – Lawson Purdy

Two

Penelope looked at Parker despairingly. "This is the last time we do this." She told him, her voice low and firm. "I don't care what he say's or what I say, don't bring him again Parker." She paused and looked at the doors Jeff had just walked through. "Please."

Parker nodded, remaining silent, following her gaze before turning back to look out the windscreen on FAB 1.

Penny sighed and rested her head on the dashboard in front of her, sitting in the front passenger seat for a change as Jeff had sat in the back. "This can't be healthy. Hell I'm not even sure it's legal."

"With all due respect m'lady, he's a man in mourning. He's coping the only way he knows how."

Penny sat up and raised an eyebrow. "I'd hardly call this coping Parker. This is more like self destruction." She glanced over to the building again. "I don't know how many times a man can see the corpses of his dead children before it kills him."

"Maybe that wouldn't be such a bad thing." Parker mumbled.

"Excuse me?" Penelope asked, anger appearing out of nowhere as she turned on her butler. "What are you suggesting?"

"No disrespect ma'am, but I never fully agreed with what he did. A rescue organisation? Fair enough. But to put his own children in the line of fire like he did? That's not right, and now he has to live with that decision." Parker stumbled slightly at Penelope's unwavering face of anger, but continued. "Don't misunderstand me, I loved those boys like they were my own, you know that, and I'll stand by their father because that's what they would want. But that man has a lot of guilt to overcome and a lot of consequences he has to face. And if death is the only way he sees fit, then I for one will not stand in his way."

Penelope opened her mouth to reply before pursing her lips back shut and clenching her jaw. She gave him an unappreciative and unamused look before opening her door. "I'll be back when he's ready." She told the older man, before slamming the door shut behind her and heading into the building after Jeff.

--

"Mr. Tracy?" Dr. Luintel asked quietly, carefully entering the room that held the billionaires sons. "Mr. Tracy?" He asked again.

Jeff looked up from where he stood next to Gordon. "Yes?" He asked, seeming slightly dazed.

The doctor sighed, thinking how best to put his words to the man. "Mr. Tracy, I'm sorry for your loss." He paused. "But there's a rather significant matter I need to discuss with you." He sighed again as Jeff's attention turned back to his fourth son. "About your children Jeff." He said softly.

Jeff looked back up at the younger man. Waiting for him to continue.

"The bodies won't stay this preserved for much longer. We've done the best we could aside freezing them, and they've lasted considerably longer than expected, than they should have done. But within the week they will need to be buried, or cremated, or whatever it is you wish to do to lay them to rest. You can't keep them like this Jeff. It won't work, and… it's not fair." Dr. Luintel watched as the other man took his words in. "On you, or them."

Jeff paused before he answered the doctor, taking in Gordon's features. He remembered so well when they had been full of life. Remembered Gordon's laugh, and his smile. How the corners of his mouth twitched when he had been up to something. How his eyes darkened when he got angry. He remembered every tiny detail about the boy's entire life, and nothing hurt more knowing that it had come to an end. Jeff was aware the doctor was talking to him again, but he couldn't make out the words. They'd become a blur of sound. He smiled down sadly at his son. "I miss you." He said softly, leaning down and kissing Gordon's forehead. "I'd do anything to bring you back Gordy. Really I would… I'm so sorry."

Dr. Luintel watched as Jeff straightened up to his full height and walked towards him. "Good day James." He said, holding out his hand for the younger man to shake.

The doctor sighed and shook it. "Good day Jeff. And please, let us know within five days what you would like to be done with your son's bodies. They can't stay like this."

Jeff nodded before walking out of the room, leaving the doctor alone with his sons. He didn't want to bury them. Couldn't bury them. Couldn't accept they were actually gone. He replayed what the doctor had told him over and over as he walked back towards the exit.

"Jeff." Penelope was headed towards him; the same sympathetic look on her face. "How are you doing?"

"Fine." He murmured in response. "The doctors want me to bury the boys."

"Oh Jeff." Was the only thing Penelope could manage to come up with, as they headed back towards the exit. "Perhaps it's for the best."

Jeff nodded, pushing open the door and holding it for her, she shuddered slightly as she walked back out into the winter air. "It's freezing out here." She mumbled as she headed down the steps to the car. Jeff stopped. "Jeff?" She turned around and looked at him concerned. "Jeff are you alright?"

Jeff's mind was racing a mile a minute as he stood rooted to the spot. Freezing. The word was spinning round his head.

"Jeff?" Penelope asked, running back up the steps to him. "Jeff, what's wrong?"

He looked up at her and genuinely grinned. Penelope was taken aback. Jeff hadn't smiled since the boys had died. "Penny, you're a genius." He told her before running back into the building.

"Jeff?" She called out, concerned at what suddenly had him so happy. "Oh God." She mumbled to herself. "Parker, we'll be back in a minute." She called out to him, as he sat waiting in the car, before running into the building. "Jeff?" She called, running down the hospital corridors. "Dammit." She cursed, finding herself lost. "Jeff?" She called out again.

"Can I help you Miss?" A young nurse asked, approaching her.

"Yes. Could you please tell me where Jeff Tracy will have gone?"

The nurse nodded with a look of knowing. Jeff's visits had been a frequent occurrence and he was well known by all the hospital staff. "If you take that elevator down to the basement level and turn right, it's the second door on the left."

Penelope nodded. "Thank you." She said, before following his directions. She bounced nervously on the balls of her feet as the elevator took her down three levels. Unlike Jeff she had no desire to see the corpses of the boys. She had enough trouble dealing with images of them alive; she didn't need the added stress of nightmares with their corpses in. Slowly she walked out of the elevator and towards the room that Jeff was in, mentally preparing herself for what she would see.

"Jeff, I didn't mean… it's not a fully researched area of medicine. It could have consequences far beyond our comprehension."

Penelope frowned as the conversation reached her ears.

"James, please. I don't care. I'll pay for the research; hell I'll do the research myself. But I won't bury my children."

"Jeff, when you hired me you asked me to always be honest with you especially when it came to your boys, so listen to me when I say. This isn't worth it—"

"Don't tell me what is and is not worth the lives of my children." Jeff interrupted immediately. "I know it can be done, and you know it can be done. And yes it can be risky, but I don't care. I won't give up on them. Not yet."

Penelope heard Dr. Luintel sigh as she stood outside the room, refusing to look in and see the corpses of the Tracy sons. "Mr. Tracy, cryogenic freezing is a highly unrefined method. Even if it did work there's not saying your son's would survive longer than a week, a day even. The gas could still be in the lungs, or the water, and even if we got that out… in Alan's case…" Dr. Luintel paused. "His injuries were so extensive… the loss of blood… it just wouldn't be worth it."

Penelope felt tears sting her eyes at the mention of Alan's injuries and she hung her head, memories of his and Virgil's abduction flooding back to her.

_--_

_"__Penny, something's wrong with Alan we gotta go." Virgil had come running into her sitting room, panicked_

_"Is he alright?" She'd asked concerned. The youngest of the five brothers had been attending a funeral in England, and with Virgil accompanying him on the trip they had stayed with Penelope in her country residence._

_"I don't know." Virgil was frantic. "Gordon just rang and said he'd been talking to him on the phone when he'd gotten cut off."_

_"Perhaps his battery just died." She suggested, standing up and calling for Parker anyway. "Parker ready the car, we need to pick Alan up from the funeral._

_"He was calling for help Penny." Virgil told her._

_She paused. "Are you sure this isn't one of Gordon's pranks?"_

_"Gordon wouldn't joke about something like this." Virgil told her seriously._

_She nodded. "Okay, let's go."_

_Virgil had been unable to sit still the entire journey to the church where the funeral had taken place, and upon their arrival had thrown himself out of the car running through the graveyard to where John had told him Alan's position had been. "Alan!" He had screamed. "Alan where are you?"_

_"Virgil, calm down!" Penelope had called after him, cursing her high heels as she ran through the grass. "You're not going to do anyone any good by…" She had trailed off, as she came level with him and saw the sight before her._

_Virgil was dark with fury. "Put him down."_

_Before them had stood three men, one sat on a nearby bench smiling at Virgil, the slighter of the three. Another stood behind him, at least twice his size and much bigger than Virgil. The third stood slightly aside of them, Alan dangling above the ground in his large grasp._

_"Gentlemen," Penelope had begun. "Let the boy go. Virgil, calm down." She had said slowly, placing a hand on Virgil's wrist, noticing the guns the men held that Virgil seemed to have missed._

_Virgil had ignored her. "I swear to God. Put him down now."_

_The man on the bench looked at the one holding Alan and nodded. "Okay."_

_"Hey!" Virgil had screamed angrily as the large man dropped his brothers limp body. It hit the ground with a sickening thud and it had been all Penelope could manage to stop Virgil throwing himself at his brother's assailant. "What do you want?" He seethed at them._

_The man on the bench stood up and smiled. "You."_

_"Then you've got me." Virgil said without hesitation. "Let him go."_

_The first man again smiled. "Exactly as expected." He told the other two. He turned to Virgil. "By you, I mean you **and** your brother."_

_Virgil shook his head. "Leave Alan out of this. Whatever it is you want, you can have me, but not him."_

_"I'm afraid you alone won't do Virg."_

_Penelope had flinched at the man's use of Virg. "Virgil, listen to me, don't go throwing yourself in harms way, it—"_

_"Get Alan." He'd commanded so firmly that she felt herself comply, despite her not wanting to._

_"Miss. Creighton-Ward if you would like young Virgil to remain in one piece I suggest you don't move." The first man told her, as the second made his way over to him. "Virgil are you going to come along or do we have to make this difficult."_

_"Penny help him." Virgil said again, not struggling as the second man roughly took hold of him. Penelope took a small step forwards but stopped as the man holding Virgil roughly twisted the boys arm behind his back and wrapped his own around his neck._

_Virgil involuntarily let out a gasp of pain. "Help him!" He choked, struggling in the man's grasp._

_"I thought this was going to be easy." The first man said disappointedly. "Virgil you're making things difficult."_

_"Let Alan go!" He managed to choke out. "Penny help him!"_

_"Virgil one more word and you will regret the day you were born."_

_There was a stirring from where Alan lay and the group of people stopped. "Alan." Virgil breathed._

_Alan had slowly pushed himself up from the grass, and touched a hand to his forehead. It was all Penelope could do not to cry, having been convinced he was dead. He had looked at his hand fearfully, seeing it covered with blood. "Shit." He muttered to himself, unable to help the fear coursing through him as what had happened returned. He looked up and saw her. "Penny… help." The words tumbling out of his mouth before he could stop them._

_"Penny!" Virgil screamed as loud as he could. "Get him out of here!!"_

_The first man rolled his eyes irritably. "Virgil. Shut up."_

_"Make me." Virgil had spat._

_The first man nodded. "Very well."_

_"No!" Penny had screamed running towards Alan as the third man roughly picked him up by the scruff of his neck. "Put him down!" The man had easily kicked her back and she had landed a few feet away._

_"Lady Penelope move again and Virgil will have a new hole in his head to breathe out of."_

_She had frozen, unable to move as the third man began to hit Alan. Kicking, punching, smacking, strangling, throwing him to the ground. And she had felt sick. She couldn't watch._

_"Penny! Penny please!" Virgil had begun to scream as Alan fell to the floor, hitting his head on a gravestone on the way. "Penny! He's not moving help him!" He struggled in the large mans grip. "I swear to God!" He spat at the first man. "I swear to God, leave him the fuck alone! Leave him alone!" He repeated, growing more and more angry as the third man continued to attack his brother. "Please!"_

_The first man had shaken his head. "It's your own fault Virg. All you had to do was come away nicely."_

_"Please!" Virgil had repeated, his voice hoarse as tears began to form. "Leave him alone! Penny!"_

_She had looked at Virgil helplessly. "I can't." She told him, her voice nearly gone, as she watched the man holding Virgil place his gun to his temple._

_"You bitch! Help him! Forget me just help him! He's just a kid! Penny, PLEASE!" Virgil had screamed at her, as the third man held Alan in a vice like grip around his neck. "Please." Virgil began to sob as his brother dropped to the floor one last time. "Please."_

_"Miss. Creighton-Ward." The first man said, walking towards where Alan's limp body lay. He prodded at Alan's side with his foot. The blonde didn't stir. "You will take these." He told her, bending down and removing Alan's watch. He held his hand out as the man holding Virgil roughly pulled of his of Virgil's arm. "You will tell Jeff that Alan is upset over the funeral and that he and Virgil are staying an extra few days to recover." He dropped the communicators at her feet. "If you do anything otherwise. I will kill them." He motioned at the two brothers. "And I will know… Understand?"_

_She had nodded, and the three men had drug away Virgil and Alan, leaving her alone in the graveyard. It had been the last time she saw them alive._

_--_

"Then it's agreed." Jeff's words brought her back to the present.

Dr. Luintel sighed. "I won't promise this will work Jeff."

"I'll make it work. This time, I'll get it right for them."


	3. Three

A/N: Some of the story has parts of the movie in and some doesn't. And some of the movie doesn't exist in the story at all (like Fermat for example… anyone else thinking wtf? When it comes to him?) Anyhoo that's just so y'all know. Please r n r let me know what u think, and thank u so much to all those that have done already :D tis much appareciated.

Choice & Consequence

-

"The strongest principle of growth lies in human choice." – George Eliot

Three

Penelope shifted a glance towards Brains as she watched Jeff explain his plan to him. To his credit the scientist had kept his face neutral, something she had failed to do when Jeff had told her of his idea to cryogenically freeze the boys. Needless to say the former astronaut had been less than impressed with her reaction and had refused to say anything to her for the rest of the journey back to Tracy Island from the mainland, accusing her of wanting his sons dead. Brains however, managed to retain some self-control and was nodding every so often, murmuring words of acknowledgement as Jeff spoke quickly, almost excited, at the prospect of putting the plan into action.

Her gaze changed again as she saw Kyrano enter at the far side of the room. She turned her attention to the floor, catching his look. She had been on the receiving end of the normally gentle-natured mans tirades more times than she cared to count since the boys had died. Taking over Jeff's business affairs upon request, Kyrano had had little to do with his emotional ones, Penelope stepping in where he could not. Fairly obviously Kyrano disapproved of the way Penelope handled the older man, branding her foolish and heartless for continuously "putting him through" seeing his dead sons. She'd tried to explain time and time again that it was Jeff's choice and there was little she could do to persuade him otherwise but Kyrano would have none of it. She had no doubt she would receive yet another berating once the oriental heard of Jeff's freezing plan.

"I want preparations to begin immediately Brains. At whatever the cost."

Brains again nodded, but said nothing, letting Jeff continue.

"It has to work, understand? We're not going to stop until it does."

Brains nodded as Jeff finished, and the former astronaut seemed happy with his plans, heading towards Kyrano to spread the news. Penelope watched as the old friends left the lounge, walking as they talked. She turned her attention to Brains.

"This was your idea?" He asked her, straight to the point.

She shook her head. Kyrano was not the only one to change since the boys' deaths. "No." She said quietly. "But something I said reminded him of what the doctor mentioned."

"This is ludicrous." The words were sharp and to the point.

She nodded. "I know."

Brains sighed and shook his head. "It'll kill him you know. When it doesn't work."

"I know." She repeated, her words a whisper. The thought of Jeff going through more pain didn't seem right, and she hated that she could do nothing to prevent it. Once Jeff Tracy got an idea, there was no talking him out of it.

Brains sighed again, beginning to mumble more to him self than to her. "He could have gone either way, trust him to choose the one that's going to stop him getting on with his life."

Penelope had to bite her lip from saying too much. From what she'd seen since in the past month Jeff had no life to get on with. It had been taken along with his children. She kept her mouth shut though. She'd learned the hard way not to disagree with Brains since their deaths. "You'll let me know what's going on?" She asked him as he headed back towards his lab.

"Always." He nodded.

She let out a long breath as she sat heavily down on one of the couches. She looked over it sadly, running a hand over the fabric, remembering the summer before and John's party. Since the incident with Thunderbird 5 the year before, Jeff had decided that for a week the whole family be together, leaving the space station on auto pilot. Needless to say, everyone had enjoyed being with each other and the noise and laughter that filled the house had been louder than ever. The photo, taken at the height of the evening festivities, of herself, the boys, Jeff, Parker, Brains, Tin-Tin and Kyrano sitting on the same couch she sat on now, stood on her dresser back in England and on the table in front, as a reminder of happier times. She stared at it sadly, trying to swallow her tears, remembering once more that she missed them more than she ever imagined she could.

"Penelope."

She shut her eyes in an attempt to regain her composure upon hearing Kyrano's stern voice. "Yes?" She answered standing up.

"You never listen to a word I say. Ever. I tell you time and time again that it is no good for him but **still** you take him. And now this." Penelope flinched as Kyrano spat his words out angrily. "You will be the end of him Penelope. Not The Hood, not Lucille or the boys. You."

She stared at his back, willing herself not to cry as he stormed out of the room, his piece said. She felt enough guilt over the boys death and it's consequences without the added shame of further destroying Jeff's life.

"It's not your fault you know."

She jumped at the voice behind her. "Tin-Tin." She breathed softly, wiping the tears from her eyes as she turned to face the girl.

Tin-Tin stood before her, looking far older than her 17 years. Alan's death affecting her far more than perhaps anyone realised. "It's not." She repeated, looking Penelope directly in the eye. "I know you think it is, I can see the guilt weighing you down. But it's not." Tin-Tin paused. "You did all you could. Jeff knows that. Alan and the guys… knew that… know that."

Penelope swallowed and smiled sadly at the younger woman. "Do they?"

--

_"Gordon!"_

_"Penny!" Gordon looked at her, his eyes wild with fear, knowing what was coming. "They're not, they're not, they're not—"_

_"Is there any way you can stop the water coming in?" She asked him, interrupting his ramblings, as she concentrated on finding a way to break him free of his glass prison._

_"I've got nothing on me, they took everything from us…" His eyes wandered over to where his brothers had been beside him._

_"Gordon!" She snapped, desperately trying to keep his attention on her instead of his dead brothers beside him._

_"Where's Dad?" He asked, sounding for all the world like the little boy he was when they'd met._

_"He's here sweet heart don't worry. He's working with Parker to try and get to your brothers—"_

_"But it's too late." He told her, his voice breaking._

_"Gordon, we need to concentrate on getting you out."_

_"There's a lot of water in here Penelope." He told her, looking down at the water level that was now rising to his waist._

_"I know Gordo, I know. Is there anyway you can stop where it's coming in from? Even by just using your finger?" She was getting more and more desperate as the teenager began to slip into a shock induced daze._

_"I really liked swimming." He told her dreamily._

_"Gordon!" She said firmly. "Do not give up understand? **Understand**?" She repeated harshly, drawing his attention back to her. He nodded slowly. "Try and break the glass somehow, I'm going to try and find something to smash it with. Okay?"_

_"Okay." Gordon whispered, his eyes watching the water now near to his chest._

_"**Gordon**."_

_"Okay." He said more firmly, turning his focus to the glass cylinder that held him, and banging on it with his fists._

_Penelope had turned and run from the row of five, past Jeff and Parker to the back of the large room in search of something that could break the glass. Seeing nothing she grabbed at a piece of piping on the wall and yanked at it, cursing in frustration as it held fast. "PARKER!" She called frantically. The chauffeur arrived within a second and began to pull at it with her. Within a few goes it was free and she had run back towards Gordon._

_"**Gordon**!" Her eyes had widened seeing the water now up to his shoulders and she threw herself into the swing at the glass, seething with anger and frustration as the metal piping bounced off. "NO!" She screamed, hitting it again. "No, no, no, NO!" With each hit the metal flung off the glass, leaving little more than a scratch._

_"Penny!" Gordon's head was close to being submerged now, water rushing into his mouth as he called her name._

_"Gordon!" She had repeated, nearing tears seeing his desperate state as her attempts to free him remained in vein._

_"Dad!" The nineteen year old suddenly began to call. "Dad! Help! Daddy please!"_

_Gordon was crying, sobbing for his father as the water came closer and closer to taking his life._

_"No." Penelope managed to choke out, tears clouding her vision as she had continued to pound at the glass. "No."_

_"Dad." Gordon's words were becoming gurgled. "Help." He spluttered, choking on mouthfuls of water._

_"Oh God. Oh God. Gordon hold on, hold on. Please God. Hold on." Penelope was mumbling to herself, still pounding away at the glass though no longer looking at Gordon's face. "Please God, please, please, please. You can't take all of them, not all of them please. God, please." She screamed as she threw a heavy whack at the glass, looking up and now seeing Gordon's entirely submerged figure. The teenager had moments left and Penelope couldn't look him in the eye. Instead turning her attention back to breaking the glass, focusing towards the bottom of the cylinder, near the metal base. She hit and hit and hit and hit, watched as Gordon's body began to twitch as he suffocated, and then cried as it floated motionless still hitting at the glass with her metal piping. After what had seemed an eternity, the glass began to crack from the pressure of the increasing volume of water inside it, and with a final whack from the Briton, gave way, Gordon's lifeless body falling from inside it along with the water that had killed him._

_--_

"Penelope?" Tin-Tin's questioning voice brought her back to the present.

The blonde took a deep breath. "All I could wasn't good enough." She told the oriental, before turning and leaving the room.


	4. Four

Choice & Consequence

-

"You don't have to hold on to the pain, to hold on to the memory." – Janet Jackson

Four

Jeff could remember it all as if it were yesterday. He remembered the phone call.

_"Mr. Tracy?"_

Could remember his confusion.

_"I believe I have something that belongs to you."_

His anger.

_"Your God can't help you now Jeff."_

And how a few simple words had changed everything.

_"Now, you must pay."_

--

_Sighing Jeff rubbed his eyes, looking back over the paperwork on his desk. An earthquake in Japan the previous fortnight had kept him and the boys busy for days and as a result he had accumulated a huge backlog of papers that needed signing for Tracy Enterprises. Coupled with the fact that his CEO had resigned due to personal illness, he was overloaded with work and undersupplied with the time in which to do it. He sat back in his chair and sighed, stifling a yawn as he stood up. _

_Thank God there had been no more emergencies recently, he thought to himself, heading to the kitchen. The Thunderbirds hadn't been needed since the earthquake and Jeff couldn't be more grateful. Aside some serious structural damage to the Mole and minor – yet still significant - heat spoil to Thunderbird 2 the boys had all needed a well-deserved break. All, except John of course, had gone to the mainland to recover. Virgil with Alan to a funeral and then to spend some time with Penny in England, Gordon to visit his grandmother in Kansas and Scott had mumbled something about Europe._

_Normally Jeff would be hesitant in having them all gone for longer than a day or two, but they all needed refreshing, and he needed peace in the house to get his work done. And besides, with Alan and Virgil with Penny if any rescues were needed they would be able to make it back to the Island in no time._

_Pouring himself a cup of coffee, Jeff allowed his mind to go blank for a minute, just absorbing the silence and peace of the darkened house. The rest of the occupants were asleep, understandably at 3am, and only the kitchen and his office were giving out any light. He jumped slightly at the sudden ring of the phone, puzzled as to who would be calling at this time._

_"Hello?"_

_"Mr. Tracy?"_

_"Speaking."_

_There was a pause. "I believe I have something that belongs to you."_

_Jeff frowned. "Excuse me?"_

_"Missing anything?"_

_"Missing anything?" He questioned, growing more and more confused, and somewhat uneasy._

_"Anything you haven't seen in a while… or anyone?"_

_"Who is this?" Jeff demanded. "What are you talking about?"_

_Jeff's brow furrowed at some muffled noises in the background and a shout, before a weak voice came over the line. "Dad?"_

_Jeff's eyes widened. "Alan?!"_

_"That's what I'm talking about." The original voice replied._

_"Who are you? What have you done with my son"? Jeff demanded, opening up a connection to Thunderbird 5 as he did so._

_"Son?" The voice questioned._

_Jeff wouldn't have caught the implication if it hadn't been for the blank screen before him. Thunderbird 5 was empty; John was nowhere to be seen._

_"John?" He let out involuntarily, fear now beginning to knot in his stomach._

_"I see you're catching on." The voice almost laughed._

_"Who is this?" Jeff asked again angrily, now opening a call to England._

_"A friend of a friend?" The voice offered. "Brother of a friend…" It trailed off._

_"The Hood." Jeff stated, just as Lady Penelope answered. She looked worse than he'd ever seen her and almost immediately burst into tears. She knew something he didn't. Was his first thought… had seen something he hadn't._

_"Jeff. Jeff I'm so sorry." She began. "I'm so sorry, there was nothing I could do, they said they'd kill them both. I was… I was too scared." The Briton began to sob. "Oh Jeff, I'm sorry, I'm so sorry."_

_Jeff's mind was racing too fast to really understand what she was saying. Nothing like this had ever happened before. "It's okay Penny, it's okay. Just get through to Virgil, Scott and Gordon for me—"_

_Penny's face caused him to cut off abruptly._

_"What is it Penny?" He questioned, ignoring the laughter coming from the other line._

_"Virgil?" She questioned weakly._

_Jeff's stomach knotted again. "What about him?" He asked her, his voice laced with poorly disguised panic._

_She stammered. "Virgil… I… he… they took him… with Alan."_

_Jeff's head began to whirl. "But… John…" He said out loud, his thoughts not making any sense in his head._

_"John?" Penny questioned._

_"That's right Jeff." The Hood was talking again now. "Not one, not two, not even three." Jeff could hear the smile in his voice. "But five." The Hood said triumphantly._

_"Five?" Jeff questioned weakly._

_"That would be correct Jeff. Five Tracy boys, five thunderbird pilots, five sons."_

_The last word seemed to ring loudly in Jeff's ears._

_"All mine."_

_Suddenly Jeff snapped, No. They were his sons, his boys. "What have you done to them?" He seethed._

_"Nothing yet… nothing much anyway."_

_"So help me God, Hood—"_

_"Your God can't help you now Jeff. It's too late."_

_Jeff wasn't listening. "I swear, when I find you, you will regret the day your mother was ever born. I will make you pay so dearly—"_

_"The only one who will be paying dearly Jeff is you." The Hood said pointedly. "You're in no position to negotiate. I have your sons. I am in control. And nothing you can do, can change that."_

_Jeff swallowed, still angry but his mind forcing back some of his self control. "What do you want?"_

_"What do I want? I want you to pay. I want you to suffer like I have suffered Jeff. Time and time again, you have foiled my plans. Time and time again you have defeated me, and prevented me from reaching my goals. Taken my only chances from me. And I've had enough. Now, you must pay."_

--

The conversation hadn't gone much further. He'd received a list of instructions he was to follow, and he carried them out numbly, not even realising he was doing it. Something in the Hoods voice, something in Penny's tears and something in the emptiness of Thunderbird 5 had struck him. It all held a severity that he'd never experienced before. If the Hood had only had one of the boys, or even only four of them... as long as Jeff had had one it would have been okay. But to have all five been taken? Without even realising? Jeff had never been one for giving up, especially when it came to his sons, but something told him that this was going to change everything.

And it had. He thought to himself, staring up into the night sky. Everything and everyone had changed. He wasn't a fool. He saw it. Saw how Penny had crumbled, her British reserve and strength faded to a mere memory, Parker's loyalty lost, Kyrano's gentle kindness, Brains' shy genius, Tin-Tin's youth and his… his sanity it sometimes felt like, all gone. For forever it would seem. The only way to get it back would be to get the boys back. And that had failed miserably so far. It seemed that there were blatant complications he had overlooked when he proposed the idea of cryogenic-freezing and the "re-nascence" process. Their organs had been starved of oxygen, and their blood had long since turned stale. Whilst he and Brains', and the hundreds of others he had employed to research how best to reverse this, things didn't look hopeful. Tracy Enterprises had opened a whole new department into the research and development of it but so far little had been achieved. Jeff was no idiot, he knew these things took years, but years were things he didn't have. He needed his children back, now. Right now. They'd been gone what seemed an eternity, and whilst he could remember how they'd died – five images that haunted him day and night - and could remember finding out they'd been taken, could remember all of it as if it were yesterday, he was forgetting… other things. He could remember the pain, but not the memory and it should have been the other way round. He was forgetting Virgil's voice, John's laugh, things a father should never forget, and he'd be damned if he was going to. If re-nascence wasn't going to work, he'd just have to find another way…


End file.
